ber, 1816.

MY DEAR SIR,--Our application to the author of _Tales of my
Landlord_ has been anything but successful; and in order to
explain to you the reason why I must decline to address him
in this way in future, I shall copy his answer _verbatim_:--

"My respects to our friends the Booksellers. I belong to the
Death-head Hussars of Literature, who neither _take_ nor
_give_ criticism. I am extremely sorry they showed my work
to Gifford, nor would I cancel a leaf to please all the
critics of Edinburgh and London; and so let that be as it
is: They are mistaken if they think I don't know when I am
writing ill, as well as Gifford can tell me. I beg there may
be no more communications with critics."

Observe--that I shall at all times be ready to convey
anything from you to the author in a written form, but I do
not feel warranted to interfere farther.

Yours very truly,

J. BALLANTYNE.

TO JAMES BALLANTYNE, ESQ.

EDINBURGH, 5th October, 1816.

MY DEAR SIR,--I am not a little vexed at having ventured to
suggest anything to the author of the _Tales of my
Landlord_, since I find he considers it in the light of
_sutor ultra crepidam_. I never had for one moment the
vanity to think, that from any poor remark of mine, or
indeed of any human being, he would be induced to blot one
line or alter a single incident, unless the same idea
occurred to his own powerful mind. On stating to you what
struck me, and finding that your opinion coincided with
mine, I was induced to request of you to state it to the
author, in order that he might be aware that the expense of
cancelling the sheets was no object to me. I was the more
anxious to do this, in case the author should have given you
the MS. of this portion of the work sooner than he intended,
in order to satisfy the clamoring for it which I teased you
with. I trust the author will do me the justice to believe
that it is quite impossible for any one to have a higher
admiration of his most extraordinary talents; and speaking
merely as a bookseller, it would be quite unnecessary to be
at the expense of altering even one line, although the
author himself (who alone can be the proper judge) should
wish it,